


The Elder - A Life Oracle

by Damceon



Series: Character Backstories [15]
Category: Gamer Fiction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-22
Updated: 2020-03-22
Packaged: 2021-03-01 01:20:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 648
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23256805
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Damceon/pseuds/Damceon
Summary: This ancient proved to be among the most brash and resilient... and cunning.
Series: Character Backstories [15]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1672036





	The Elder - A Life Oracle

Masym was born into the Eorfanni clan of Two Rivers. Despite their namesake, the Two Rivers people tend to change their nomadic territories between *any* two rivers, in a generations-long effort to foil any attempt to track their hunting habits. Two generations ago, the clan was much smaller when Masym came of age and joined the hunters of the clan to provide for those trailblazers and gatherers that moved the camps from place to place.  
  
A grievous wound during a hunt left Masym sickly and on the verge of death for many weeks, but "Two Rivers always converge", as the saying goes. When Masym was able to feed and clean himself again, the clan shamans brought him into their fold. While he was unable to commune with the spirits, he developed impressive abilities as a healer and tamer of animals. With these new skills, Masym was able to aid the Two Rivers in improving their abilities to hunt for new food sources and safe havens during their migrations.  
  
He coupled and had children, watching them grow and develop lives of their own. Masym and his wife Eschala separated later in life, after the death of their youngest child - their daughter Sevrei. Their other children, grown or nearly grown, offered their condolence and shared grief and bore the ashes of their youngest sister as their parents went into a sort of "exile of the spirit". In his solitude, Masym found himself descending into darkness. Necromancy and death became pervasive.  
  
When Eschala died some years later, Masym struggled feverishly against the darkness growing within him. During the night, a Horror attacked the people of Two Rivers. Masym offered himself as a sacrifice to protect his clan. The Horror decided, in a cruel jest, to instead kill Masym's grandchildren.  
  
Consumed by grief, Masym fled in shame from his clan. Seeking absolution or death, Masym wandered for many days in the wilderness. A vision of Eschala's spirit came to him, again as he lay on the brink of death.  
  
"That which lives will die - that which *must* kill cannot truly live."  
  
Masym came to see a truth in the riddle of Eschala's vision: Life was anathema to the Horror. That realization sharpened Masym's senses. The more he meditated on this, the more he could *feel* the life around him. He resolved to stop eating the flesh of animals - at least, when foraging or hunting for his own sustenance. When surrounded by Irdellan slaughter houses, it seemed fruitless to continue such prohibition for the sake of animals already slain.  
  
In his meditations of life, Masym returned to the people of Two Rivers and found that his grown children had begun rebuilding their families after the Horror's attack - the entire clan had continued to live on.  
  
"Life continues." Masym's first words to his eldest son, now a fully-fleshed man and accomplished trail-blazer of the tribe. It would be many years, and many new grandchildren, before Masym learned of another Horror's depraved slaughter of pregnant women.  
  
Taking to the trail, and emboldened by his stronger understanding of the life around him, the now ancient Masym has tracked the aberration for many months. During this "hunt", Masym found the broken and bleeding form of a clansman of the Wandering Wind. Reviving the young warrior, Masym offered small counsel but firm aid as he assessed that the "youth" was possessed of both powerful life energy and equally powerful death energy.  
  
Together, they have tracked the Horror for the past two-and-a-half months, between the territories of several clans and the settlements of many Irdellans. Masym has seen the visceral fear and uncontrollable fury within his much younger companion, but has done what is within his power to mitigate any harm arising from that terrible conflict of the spirit.  
  
Now, they have come to a settlement, only to be moments too late to foil the Horrors latest bloody play.


End file.
